Sierra Madre Float

Here is the City of Sierra Madre float (California Girls) in the 2010 Tournament of Roses Parade. This is the float I help prepare flowers for and you can see some pictures of the unfinished float in a previous blog.
I sure had a great time at the parade. The flowers on the floats look so much better in person than on T.V. The weather was great today and I really recommend that you attend the parade some year.
The New Mexico float was very nice, too. It was called "Enchantment is in the Air," and it won the Grand Marshal's Trophy for most creative concept and design.
Happy New Year!
Gus

New Year's Eve

I took Betty to a dance on New Year's Eve. We had a good time and sure glad we brought in the new year on New York time. We were back home by 9:30 California time!
I had to get up at 5:00 in the morning to get to the Tournament of Roses Parade.

Sierra Madre Princesses

Here I am with three of the Sierra Madre Princesses who will be riding on the float on January 1st. They will be among the "California Girls" sailing and windsurfing. Watch for this float in the parade, as I got to help prepare some of the roses which will decorate the float.
Warmest regards.

Tournament of Roses

Yesterday I got to help decorate the City of Sierra Madre float for the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1st. In addition to glueing seeds onto the float, I helped trim roses in preparation to placing them on the float during the hours leading up to the parade. The theme of the parade is "2010: A Cut Above the Rest." The City of Sierra Madre's entry is called "California Girls" and will be entry number 64 in the parade.
Gus

Wine Tasting

Jim & Pat took me wine tasting today in Temecula, CA. We found some very nice wines and met some really nice people. The Temecula area has developed into quite the wine producing area. There are several dozen wineries and most of the grapes are grown locally. They do import some grapes from other vineyards in CA and some from other states. Many of the wineries are less than five years old.
The Wiens Family Cellars that we visited today only produces about 9,000 cases of wine per year and sells most of it from the premises and through its wine club.
As is true for many wineries in the area, the wine is available in some restaurants but generally not available
in the stores.
Hope you had a nice Christmas.

Warmest regards, Gus

Baby Claire and Christine

Yesterday I took my friend Betty (left in the top picture) to Carsbad, CA, to visit my special friend Christine Nieto and her daughter Claire.
Sami, my Chocolate Lab friend also went along to see her friend Amigo. Amigo is Christine and Claire's dog in the middle picture with us.
We all had a great time.

Warmest regards, Gus

Merry Christmas

Betty, Billy and I (Gus) want to wish you a Merry Christmas! We had another great year traveling with Jim and Pat. We started the year near San Diego, CA, and spent most of January in Southern CA. Then we spent about six weeks along the lower Colorado River before going to Nevada with a side trip to Death Valley.
Then it was back to AZ and the Grand Canyon. From there we drove to Colorado Springs and then on to Iowa (to see Jim's mother) and Minnesota. Back in Colorado we spent time with Jim and Pat's grandchildren, lots of friends around the state and even in Wyoming. Then it was off to Utah, Montana (West Yellowstone, Bozeman, and Missoula) and Idaho. We ran out of time and then headed back to Las Vegas and then Lake Havasu City, AZ.
We are now in Menifee, CA, and will spend Christmas here before going to Pasadena for New Year's Day.
For more pictures and details about the year, you can check out the previous blogs.
Jim and Pat have been saddened by the loss of several close friends from Los Alamos this year and will keep their families in their prayers.
Warmest regards, Gus